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Edwin Boring

  • Quote: Boring robot squeezes

    Sun, 2012-05-20 18:44 -- John Hawks

    From the conclusion of Edwin Boring (1946), "Mind and mechanism" [1], which is an exposition of the philosophical value of operationalist methods in psychology:

    I believe that robotic thinking helps precision of psychological thought, and will continue to help it until psychophysiology is so far advanced that an image is nothing other than a neural event, and object constancy is obviously just something that happens in the brain. That time is still a long way off, and in the interval I choose to sit cozily with my robot, squeezing his hand and feeling a thrill -- a scientist's thrill -- when he squeezes mine back again.

    References

    1. Boring EG. Mind and Mechanism. The American Journal of Psychology [Internet]. 1946;59:pp. 173-192. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1416884
    Tags: 
    history of psychology
    behaviorism
    Edwin Boring
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